


Damnatio Memorigay

by RogueTranslator



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canon LGBTQ Character, Canon LGBTQ Male Character, Criticism, Essays, Homophobia, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29931825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogueTranslator/pseuds/RogueTranslator
Summary: In which we coin a new term for what happened to Castiel.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	Damnatio Memorigay

A lot of the time, burying your gays is enough. Enough to communicate to the audience that gay characters are expendable compared to the ostensibly straight hero(es). Enough to create a narrative linkage between gay desire and doom. Enough to warn against the danger inherent in coming out to those close to you and the potential for cosmic punishment. Enough to teach the viewer that gay characters don’t get to experience self-fulfillment or happy endings. Enough to superficially remark on the suicidal, self-loathing, and self-destructive thoughts and impulses that are gay character clichés. Enough to provide the aforementioned hero(es) with bonus manpain and the extra motivation they need to crush the bad guys once again. Enough to provide an easy way out of the hinted romantic possibilities between the gay character and one of the heroes, even.

Of course, Castiel’s ending checked all of these boxes.

Sometimes, though…sometimes burying your gay character just isn’t enough. Maybe he was just So Gay™ that any further mention of him beyond the perfunctory might pose the risk of diverting your audience’s attention from the Actually Important People, i.e. your ostensibly straight heroes. Maybe an authentic, in-character grieving process would raise uncomfortable questions in your audience about the heterosexuality of the ostensibly straight hero who was closest to him. Maybe the rules of your fictional universe are such that resurrection from the dead is a regular occurrence and so it would be only natural that a gay character’s so-called family would attempt such a resurrection. Maybe you’re under the mistaken impression that a ham-fisted resolution showcasing how little your characters have learned, changed, and grown in fifteen years is good writing craft when in fact it’s the exact opposite.

Whatever your reason, if the gay in question is just Too Gay™ for even Bury Your Gays to handle, you can kick things up a notch with a Damnatio Memorigay. _Damnatio memoriae_ , of course, refers to the collection of practices found in many societies throughout history that were intended to erase the memory of a person. The Oxford Classical Dictionary refers to the destruction of images and penalisation of their display, the erasure of names from inscriptions, the banning of names within families, and the revocation of official acts, among other penalties. Damnatio Memorigay, in the paradigmatic case of Castiel, would include things like:

  * None of the other characters displaying a reaction to his death commensurate with his importance to them.
  * The illogic of Dean demanding that a hostile character resurrect Castiel, then refraining from making the same request of a friendly character with an equivalent power level later in the same episode.
  * The naked exploitation of making Misha Collins’s final appearance on the show be as the voice of a hostile non-Castiel character (one who was narratively unnecessary, to boot).
  * Dean’s invocation of Castiel’s dying words in his victory speech over Chuck, only to have him shrink back into his pre-Castiel personality in the very next episode.
  * The happy beers, joyride, and montage at the end of 15x19, which were not only the equivalent of tastelessly dancing on Castiel’s grave but completely out of character for Dean based on his canonical behaviour after losing Castiel every other time.
  * Whatever the mess that Dean’s characterisation was in the front half of 15x20, where random hunts and pie festivals are apparently what he feels like doing when he literally killed himself the last time Castiel died.
  * Broadly, the absence of Dean grieving Castiel.
  * In that vein, Dean never mentioning the confession to any other character or seemingly acknowledging it even to himself.
  * Castiel being revealed as alive at the time of Dean’s death, but not aiding him when he was in mortal peril like he had countless times before. Apparently, he didn’t love him enough to show up and heal a pretty basic wound by Supernatural standards.
  * Castiel being alive and in heaven, but totally absent upon Dean’s arrival there.
  * Castiel being alive and in heaven, but never portrayed as interacting with Dean.
  * Castiel being alive and in heaven, but nowhere to be found upon the reunion of his “family” at the end of 15x20.
  * Dean never getting the opportunity to respond to Castiel’s confession, and Castiel never getting to hear that response.
  * After the show, the weird silence on the character of Castiel and his relationship with Dean on the part of all parties. On the other hand, insulting takes about how it was good that Dean died because then Sam could live a free, normal life were apparently just fine. I suppose because those were not Too Gay™.
  * The weird blackballing of any questions about Castiel’s confession, Dean’s feelings about it, and the relationship between the two characters at SPN events. It’s part of the text of the show now and it’s still verboten, still taboo. Too Gay™, I guess.
  * And finally, the thing that motivated me to write all this today: the Jensen answer yesterday to what Dean was doing in Heaven. Beers at the roadhouse, lasagna with his abusive father, driving around…oh, apparently, he gets bored after a while, which makes sense. Hmm, his best friend is alive and in Heaven, but it sounds like he’s not on the agenda anywhere. I mean, he only gave up his life to save yours, validated the essence of who you are in a way no one else ever did, and helped build your ideal Heaven, on top of everything else you mean to each other, but maybe it’s just Too Gay™ to say that Dean would give him the time of day. Or maybe it’s a scheduling thing. Dean only has forty or so years to kill before Sam arrives, after all.



For those pesky moments when you just have a character who Flames from Space™…who’s just So Gay™ that he subverts heteronormativity maybe a bit more than you’re comfortable with…whose very presence, even memory, calls into doubt the straightness of your male hero…for those moments, let me recommend Damnatio Memorigay. It’s a proven, effective last resort when you’re feeling threatened by things that are simply Too Gay™.


End file.
